Watched Bens preview this morning - that track looks brutal and steep!
Should make for some great racing this weekend.
Hopefully laurie and Danny can carry the momentum forward from last weekend.
Here's the current standings:
ELITE MEN
1st /// Amaury PIERRON // FRA // 753 // No change
2nd // Laurie GREENLAND // GBR // 491 // -262 // Moves up from 5th
3rd // Troy BROSNAN // AUS // 488 // -265 // No change
4th // Aaron GWIN // USA // 481 // -272 // Moves down from 2nd
5th // Danny HART // GBR // 451 // -302 // Moves up from 8th
6th // Luca SHAW // USA // 448 // -305 // Moves up from 7th
7th // Loris VERGIER // FRA // 439 // -314 // Moves down from 4th
8th // Samuel BLENKINSOP // NZL // 357 // -396 // Moves down from 6th
9th // Brook MACDONALD // NZL // 327 // -426 // Moves up from 9th
10th // Mark WALLACE // CAN // 277 // -476 // New to top 10
ELITE WOMEN
1st // Rachel ATHERTON // GBR // 776 // Moves up from 2nd
2nd // Tahnée SEAGRAVE // GBR // 676 // -100 // Moves up from 3rd
3rd // Myriam NICOLE // FRA // 610 // -166 // Moves down from 1st
4th // Tracey HANNAH // AUS // 560 // -216 // No change
5th // Monika HRASTNIK // SLO // 496 // -280 // Moves up from 7th
6th // Emilie SIEGENTHALER // SUI // 426 // -350 // No change
7th // Marine CABIROU // FRA // 401 // -375 // Moves down from 5th
8th // Katy CURD // GBR // 289 // -487 // No change
9th // Veronika WILDMANN // ITA // 274 // -502 // New to top 10
10th // Mariana SALAZAR // 252 // -524 // No change
Two of the best dh courses on the circuit back to back within a week of each other. Can't beat it. Amaury is on a flyer atm , respect to him.
The track IS brutal and steep - I rode it back in 2013 after some heavy rain and spent a lot of time sliding down it on my arse. I consider myself reasonably handy on a bike but the lower section was not in my skill set.
I'm hoping that Shaw can break his duck this weekend, the kid deserves it for the way his season has gone so far. Greenland too goes about his thing really well and seems to be a genuinely nice bloke
Due another winner in the womens this week too
Brendog and an unedited timed training.....man, does that course look brutal or what....
Best rider course preview I've seen. The random yelps of Claudio are amusing but a thoughtful analysis of the track from Gee is much more interesting to me. Amazed he could talk coherently the entire way down, and barely be out of breath.
Is it just me or does that look by far the most brutal course?
I think the riders all have Val Di Sole as the most brutal, this is steep though
Aye it's the steepness in particular I'm talking about. Guess that's just yer perspective, I don't mind rocky, steepness i shit myself at though! And that looks nuts to me!
The second part in the woods after the house sized jumps is crazy steep. I "rode" it in 2015, and honestly it's the most ridiculous thing I've tried to ride on a bike. I had my brakes on for most of it and it was still a case of slowing the rate of acceleration rather than actually slowing down at all. When I wanted to stop (often to have a good cry) it was a case of slowing down enough to lay the bike on the ground and have a sort of controlled crash...
mad mad mad.
I thought that Gee's commentary was good too. That track looks somewhat difficult...
Quali results:
Elite Men
1st. SHAW Luca 4:09.363
2nd. HART Danny 4:11.926 +2.563
3rd. GREENLAND Laurie 4:11.932 +2.569
4th. MACDONALD Brook 4:13.122 +3.759
5th. ESTAQUE Thomas 4:13.626 +4.263
Elite Women
1st. ATHERTON Rachel 04:52.932
2nd. HANNAH Tracey 05:05.645 +12.713
3rd. SEAGRAVE Tahnee 05:06.526 +13.594
4th. SIEGENTHALER Emilie 05:10.556 +17.624
5th. RAVANEL Cécile 05:14.927 +21.995
Junior Men
1st. KERR Henry 4:25.320
2nd. DAPRELA Thibaut 4:27.584 +2.264
3rd. EDWARDS Kade 4:30.377 +5.057
4th. SAURER Elia 4:33.104 +7.784
5th. EDMONDSON Jamie 4:33.683 +8.363
Junior Women
1st. HOLL Valentina 5:17.449
2nd. NEWKIRK Anna 5:40.879 +23.430
3rd. JOHNSET Mille 5:50.973 +33.524
4th. ZIBASA Paula 5:56.425 +38.976
5th. SORIANO Samantha 6:20.809 +1:03.360
Vali Holl 23.4 seconds faster!! that's mental, surely she'll be stepping up to Elite soon? That would have put here 7th!!
Vali Holl 23.4 seconds faster!! that’s mental, surely she’ll be stepping up to Elite soon? That would have put here 7th!!
I think she's better off in juniors winning titles, building her reputation and sponsorships and then making the move up. She will get more coverage doing that than coming in 7th place in elite.
7th in womens is 27 seconds back
There's a definite "changing of guards" feeling about this season. Wouldn't bet against Gee, Greg (and possibly Rachel) retiring this year. After Greg; Gee is the next oldest at 33 and a 12th here is the best quali he's had all year so far. Both Greg and Arron (the next two oldest riders) are out injured...what have all three left to prove?
Well the ladies are off, Ravenel is picking up some pace considering how little she has ridden a DH bike
what have all three left to prove?
Greg certainly wants another World Champs and is capable of getting one, another couple on the wins to push the GOAT out a little further would keep him going. After the injury I wonder if he would like to go out on his own terms after a full season. He hasn't been off the pace when he was racing.
Damm that was some drama there going to go down to the wire here 🙂
Saw the interview with Greg on cahtro, he just doesn't seem like who he was anymore. You just can't bounce back as you can in your 20's. The man has nothing to prove, he is the GOAT atm. I think nickc has it spot on.
Wild one from Eddie there!!
Now that run has been coming for a while!! Who's going to beat that one?
vergier might nab this
Well done to Loris!! Hoping that was just nerves from Shaw and not something else there
That course looked nuts, 'controlled falling' was it described by Rachael last year?
Enjoyed the race runs, Tahnee put down a great run but what happened with Rachael? Lost the urge to win? Similar to Tracey Hannah in the World Champs last year surely they are used to jumping back on as quick as possible?
Happy for Loris, a well deserved win. I can see it being the first of many for him.
Just watched Wyn Masters round up from after the event.
A few riders saying that they'd had 'moments' in sections and then backed off so that they could make it down safely- including Phil Atwill who lets face it is a pretty balls out rider.
Scary looking track.
UK national championships
Titles are on the line in Scotland this weekend as the best downhill riders in the country compete at the HSBC UK | National Downhill Championships.
British riders have been in terrific form on the international circuit – but who will claim the right to be called national champion at Glencoe?
I watched that this morning. Those square edge rock gardens don't half look gnarly
Will be interesting to see some of Cathro's analysis on line choice through them
That is going to be so slippery in the rocks...
Still enjoying the lanky lads work....
Excellent! Haven't been on Pinkbike this week so forgot this was on.
Still no course rides from Claudio?
Still no course rides from Claudio?
He/redbull sacked it off after his bleed on the brain. Sensible decision. FWIW someone like Gee did a more than admirable job there- seeing the course at pace (recovering from a broken hand too) was excellent. Personally, I'm getting sick of Claudio and the fanboy circus around him- I don't rate him particularly as a commentator either, he always seems a little flat, and would like to see him move on- they need some fresh blood in the commentary booth with Mr Warner. The previews were generally entertaining of course but alot seem to get VERY excited about him, which I've never understood. hey ho. Just my two pence!
Roll on MSA.
ps, Gwin not racing but currently on a 29" tues.. Source: his IG account.
The only thing more tense than the racing is waiting to see if Paton can type something rather than just pasting links 😉
Luca Shaw FTW come on about time
the link so heroically pasted above says its live at 10:20pm UK time, is this live coverage of the qualifying? or am I too tired to spot the obvious and should just go to bed
Live coverage starting with the women, there is XC there so DH on saturday afternoon, they have not shown quali live since the days of the website I can't even remember the name of
Yeh I had another look and its XC that's on tonight.
Women at 5:30 Saturday afternoon, men at 7.
Good qualifying results.
Well I enjoyed that! Best top 10 men I can remember for a while.
I caught up on all the replays last night.
Pierron totally deserved that and it was about time Bruni stayed on his bike and showed what he can do.
Rachel Atherton showed the others that when she's on form they are all just competing for 2nd place. Nice to see Gee get a good result there too, I'd written him off as just making up the numbers lately.
Can anyone else find the recap? I can see the XCO, quali runs and winners runs (thanks for that RB) but I can’t find the races at all.
Nice to see Gee get a good result there too, I’d written him off as just making up the numbers lately.
Gee's wrist is still broken. The same injury he's been racing with for the last 3 WCs
